When visitors come to our office, one of the first things they notice is how quiet it is. Naturally, one of the first questions they ask is “how do you keep it so quiet?”

My answer is “library rules.”

Everyone knows how to behave in a library. You keep quiet or whisper. You respect people’s personal space. You don’t interrupt people who are reading or working, learning or studying. And if you need to have a full-volume conversation, you hit a private room.

So if you want to keep things quiet at the office, treat it like a library. It works surprisingly well.

Jared

on 10 Dec 12

Sounds like a nightmare. Silence is deafening.

Mason212

on 10 Dec 12

great post! but how do you get people to all agree to abide by library rules? is it just the caliber of staff you have, someone who shushes like a librarian (you) or are people just afraid of being fired? fear is not the best enforcer so I doubt that is it! maybe a bit more on this topic. another idea that seems so simply stated but likely has more to it – plus I think you left out that your build-out likely was sensitive to sound barriers, and sound absorbing materials etc.

Aditya Rustgi

on 10 Dec 12

@Mason212
Here is my experience at companies I have worked at (Not at 37 Signals). Anytime I start at a new place, one of the first things I try to do is get a grip for the etiquettes and culture of the place. I trust most people do this. To do that, you especially pay attention to what the senior leadership / founders do.

Therefore, the best way to get people to abide is by example. For example: if you go to a place where there are a lot of meetings, you end up creating a lot of meetings. If you go to a place, where it is not okay to be late for meetings, you adjust to that. And so on…

Joan

on 10 Dec 12

@Mason212 – Ann and I are former librarians. We’ve both studied ontology and practical application of shushing.

As for getting people to abide by the rules, it starts with being grown-ups. If people can’t be respectful about interruptions and the sound they make during the day, they’ve got bigger problems.

Sarah Houghton

on 10 Dec 12

The ironic thing is that as a librarian, I can tell you that for the last decade (at least) most libraries don’t enforce “library silence.” We encourage people to talk, to collaborate, to discuss. As long as you’re not annoying the hell out of the people around you, we encourage a low level of conversation and noise.

Harry

on 10 Dec 12

I wish my office would work like this!

Morley

on 10 Dec 12

I would imagine that having carpeting would do a lot to reinforce such a rule. It’s a lot easier to be louder if shows are clacking everywhere.

Fred

on 10 Dec 12

What I found really odd about visiting the 37Signals office was the homeless man looking at porn in the corner. Now, that makes total sense.

Nick

on 10 Dec 12

The library rules are usually bent for the kitchen area of the office. At least for meetups, our big lunch table is packed with people. There’s music playing and even a projector to share videos (or launch countdowns!). The feeling is more of a coffee shop than a library. I tend to work better in noisy/loud environments where I can tune out and focus on a problem.

Jason Fried

on 10 Dec 12

Nick’s right… We do have a communal corner of the office (the kitchen) where people often work together around a table. But we’ve designed the office in a way that sound mostly stays over in that corner.

Lucas Arruda

on 10 Dec 12

@Sarah Houghton, the thing is that most Office are really noisy. So, if people would collaborate, but still try to make less noise as possible, it can work just fine.

Less noise does not necessarily means less collaboration.

kyle

on 10 Dec 12

+1 for ”...it starts with being grown-ups”

bhdn

on 10 Dec 12

I would pay well for a coworking space with library rules.

Nobody

on 10 Dec 12

There’s also the sanity preserving way to do this – put people in separate offices. No distractions, improved creativity and not having to be in the army just to be able to eat.

Honestly, I’ve worked with a few managers who employ techniques of strictness and discipline and sticks and they are invariably a complete pain in the ass to work with. You start to develop your own neurosis just from observing their behaviors (since, you know, monkey see, monkey do). I hope that none of your employees leave. I don’t even want this to be an option.

Robert

on 10 Dec 12

I would hate that. I like “noise”.

Alex

on 10 Dec 12

Might as well all work from home

Jason Fried

on 10 Dec 12

To add, library rules don’t mean silence. Library rules means a soft quiet, a respect for the people around you. A recognition that your noise affects the concentration and attention of people around you.

Neil

on 10 Dec 12

This sounds super extreme. But I guess for some offices it would necessitate such an approach. Personally, I like dynamic. Work is the place I spend so much of my life – so I want to create the best experience I can. So I dig the space being alive – music playing, conversation etc. If I want to focus I just opt out of the world around me and put my head down. I guess one size doesn’t fit all with this stuff.

Yamil

on 10 Dec 12

Thanks one of the reasons why I don’t like going to the office. At all. People who can’t get things done will —almost inevitable— orbitate around trying to attract the rest towards theirs distraction/improductive field.

Mason212

on 10 Dec 12

liked all the follow-ups – thanks all!

but @ Joan… “it starts with being grown-ups”

kind of irritating and condescending remarks in general from you, reminds me of the stereotype of a mean librarian – did you intend that and am I part of the joke? Or do you think my honest questions were a joke? Would write more but I just lost my train of concentration from a random walk-up to my desk with a question on something they are working on. Guess that are not grown-up….

Joan

on 10 Dec 12

@Mason212 I didn’t mean it to be condescending. The shushing part was a joke, but I didn’t think your question was a joke at all. I meant we don’t need to enforce the “library rules” if people are being grown-ups about interruptions and noise level. No one needs a lecture or a policy handed to them for review and no one gets punished.

When people ask, I usually tell them that’s perhaps what I like most about working here—I work with grown-ups. I’m not putting anyone down, just stating what I appreciate as I know how to explain it.

Richard "Loud Worker" Dawson

on 10 Dec 12

Sounds like hell. A quiet office is not a productive office. The staff sound like they have been crushed into submissive silence. A library is for learning, personal discovery. A workplace is for commerce and communication. Sounds like you have mixed them up. I never want to work anywhere like that.

Mig "Quietly Productive" Reyes

on 10 Dec 12

@Richard Dawson I’m quite pleased to report that the amount of learning and personal discovery in my 10 months of working at 37signals so far is off the charts. Best yet, I’ve contributed to plenty of projects and shipped many of my own, to boot!

Henk Poley

on 10 Dec 12

This doesn’t work with desk phones.

Steve Bennett

on 10 Dec 12

Funny, that’s how libraries used to be. Now they’re full of “collaborative spaces”, couches, and even cafes!

BK

on 11 Dec 12

The people who complain about this likely don’t have work which requires a great deal of concentration to be productive and achieve a state of flow. Imagine if you were in university writing your final exam, it was halfway through the allowed time, and it was taking a bit longer than expected so you were concentrating in order to answer all of the questions in the time remaining. Would you appreciate it if a few people around you who had either already finished or had already given up just lingered and started joking and laughing, conversing loudly and it disrupted your train of thought when you were trying to focus? Would you appreciate the level of interruption that had on your final grade? I’m guessing probably not.

However, in work environments some people have naturally social roles where it’s okay and sometimes expected that you’ll be conversing with other people. If that describes you, have the common courtesy to realize that there are other people in the company who require a work environment where they are able to concentrate and keep the train of thought in their head, much like you had to with your university final exams. Software development typically falls into this category. Need to have a conversation? Keep your voice down or go somewhere (such as a separate room) where you won’t distract other people. Maybe you have amazing powers of concentration and can work in the middle of a partying group of drunk coeds. Wonderful. Not everyone is like you, so have respect if they aren’t.

Luke

on 11 Dec 12

@Jared

So listen to music on your phone.

Robert Hahn

on 11 Dec 12

As it is with so many other issues, this one appears to be polarizing. I think the ‘library rules’ policy sounds like a fantastic idea that I will suggest at my own noisy workspace.

My perspective: I’m profoundly deaf (and get by with hearing aids). A noisy office is a very difficult environment for me to concentrate in, because I can’t tune out the noise – the hearing aid makes it too loud.

And yet I can’t turn the aids off (as many hearing people would enviously suggest). Doing so creates 3 problems:

1. I would appear rude to anyone wanting my attention and I simply didn’t hear;

2. It’s isolating. Being deaf is about constantly fighting against feelings of isolation in environments where no one else is isolated, just because they can hear and react to their environment (ie: the workplace). It’s hard enough with the aids on. I’m not making it harder.

3. It’s unsafe. If a fire alarm goes off, I would not hear it at all. I have had this happen before. Thank God someone thought to check on me before leaving.

For those of you who like the noisy office: I get it. Some of my favorite co-workers are noisy-office people. But its not for everyone, and if your workplace has sane ‘library rules’ policies, at least you will have spaces to be loud in, and failing that, there’s always music (over headphones, of course)

Justin Alan Ryan

on 11 Dec 12

This is definitely a cultural choice with some pluses and minuses. I like the idea that a workplace is not sacred, and that some level of shenannigans in an office are a good way to filter out people who cannot communicate like adults with other adults.

A company that I recently worked at, I had a 6-shot nerf gun on my desk. It actually came over in a box from an old workplace, and it was not really something I intended to use, but which brought a playful consciousness into the work environment. The company was in the entertainment space, and demographically skewed very young. Our customer base skewed under 18.

Probably a lot like Nerf, inc. ;)

As a social experiment, I started to play – something that is considered a sign of high intelligence among nonhuman animals, but apparently not human ones. This is Silicon fucking Valley, I thought, Nerf guns are a part of its’ DNA, I could be sitting at a desk staring at a screen anywhere. I started by firing it at the ceiling when I was mulling over difficult problems. A friend IMed me after a bit and said it was causing her to have trouble concentrating.

Fair enough, it was a bit early in the day for play, perhaps.

Before long, other people started buying nerf guns on Amazon and having them shipped to work. Those of us working late would sometimes trade arrows or use them to get each other’s attention. Sometimes a brief exchange would happen during the workday, and most people who got caught in the crossfire took it in stride, sometimes eventually participating.

One day, all of the Nerf guns disappeared. A felony amount of Nerf guns, in fact. The guy sitting next to me was dating an SFPD officer and we joked about having her come by and take a report in uniform. It wasn’t really a joke because my sense of security and safety in my office, which I inhabit during more waking hours than my house, had been violated. I didn’t want to make a stink, but I did think it was important for a company who has a Nerf Wiki to outline where and why something was not allowed, rather than to just say “Anything except things that people complain about, or are willing to commit a crime to put a stop to.”

That’s no standard of behavior if you ask me, and I’m not a huge fan of complaining about having to share space, as someone who has had roommates for many years.

When one employee left, she sent a “Fuck You, everyone!” e-mail that revealed the location of the Nerf guns, and even people who were close friends with her felt it was a bit immature and a cultural concern in the company that someone would steal from their coworkers rather than talk to them like people.

Where I work now, I was told on my first day that being hit in the head with a foam dart was a sign of respect.

I also heard people who stayed behind at my old job are even less happy than they were when I worked there.

But, if I didn’t work at an entertainment company, I might feel differently. I imagine there are a wide array of projects at 37 signals and a lot of serious work getting done. And under those circumstances, I’d probably want an office that is something like a Library.

Vivek

on 11 Dec 12

You meant an “Office with Jail Rules” ? :)

Josh Lewis!

on 11 Dec 12

We do this at our office, and it’s wonderful!! It’s a small team, and we have remote workers (and thus chat a lot online) but it’s just more respectful to all the different mental states we’re in at any moment to just make sure everyone is always as quiet as possible. If you need to have a real conversation, go somewhere that you won’t be overheard. It’s so obvious! It’s one of my favorite things about our office.

Christopher

on 11 Dec 12

As someone who recently discovered the bliss of wearing ear buds under my headphones as a way to completely (not just partially) shut out loud conversations/laughter/arguments, a workplace with a respectful library silence sounds awesome.

Marcus Hast

on 11 Dec 12

Sometimes I find it interesting to consider how much time and money is wasted by having a noisy and interruptive work environments. Most companies where I’ve worked have had an “open floor plan” or cubicle farm and it seem incredibly wasteful. Some types of work can still be done in such an environment, but if you are a developer or you need to concentrate for long periods of time (where “long” means anything more than 15 minutes) then a cubicle farm is a great way to drive yourself insane and frustrated.

It’s also interesting that this is not new knowledge by any means. There are plenty of books which go over the work environment and detail why private spaces are important. (Such as “Peopleware”.) Now, some people do enjoy to share spaces, and if they are working on the same thing it can have a positive effect. (But this is for a very limited amount of people who do similar work, so about 4 people max and you want all of them to be eg developers.)

If you are a small startup then I can see why having open offices and a general “please keep quiet” policy is a decent compromise. But in the long run being able to close your door is a lot more effective. (And this way you can have natural places to hang out and talk by the coffee machine etc. If you really want to work together put up some desks in a community area so that people can sit there are work temporarily.)

Listening to music is an alternative. But it’s been demonstrated in studies that even music without lyrics has a detrimental effect on some cognitive abilities. And years of listening to music in headphones at work has adversely affected my hearing so now I use small speakers in my room for when I want to listen to something.

Mason212

on 11 Dec 12

Getting “in the zone” to concentrate and getting stuff done is much easier without distractions, including a lot of talking, etc. To the commenter that thinks “library rules” are not conducive to a commercial environment, please note that they are primarily developing, testing, supporting, all over the web, so they differ from offices that may have sales staff talking a lot of deals, hashing things out constantly, etc. and in 37’s case they have rooms for talking when needed.

@ Joan – Ok, thanks for follow-up. “stating what I appreciate as I know how to explain it” – well, stating it as working with grown-ups is not the best explanation so perhaps it would be better to have said “stating what I appreciate as I do not know how to explain it [otherwise]” :) Anyways, I get your point nonetheless. I think “library rules” would be amazing for an office which requires a lot of concentration and which, by the way, also has acoustical treatments to aid in keeping distraction down to a minimum

thanks for this post and your follow-ups everyone including Joan-ofdark- the real librarian!

Anonymous Coward

on 11 Dec 12

Maybe if our office had “library rules” rather than lots of desk side meetings and phone calls going on for hours, I would feel I had a duty to try to “get into the zone”. However due to these issues, I don’t feel guilty when I get nothing done for days on end due to not being unable to concentrate.

Noah Parsons

on 11 Dec 12

What are the rules for customer service? People on the phone all day can generate a lot of noise. Do you have those people in their own room?

GeeIWonder

on 11 Dec 12

This was great advice for open plan offices from late 1990s-2010. You would not have designed offices like this prior to that time for a variety of reasons but certainly because the odd phone call (or e.g. odd typewriter) is considerably more disruptive than a broader ongoing noisescape.

I would not design an office like this nowadays either - the phone is gone many places, but increasingly, so is the keyboard. I run my office and home more and more like Don Draper’s - or maybe Tony Stark is a better (but certainly related) example. I can’t see why everybody wouldn’t be doing this in a couple of years.

Respect rules still matter of course.

Devan

on 11 Dec 12

Good point raised in the comments above regarding phone usage. I am assuming that your support team is isolated from the development team? I am also assuming (not having seen photos) that your office is fairly open plan?

Given that productivity and space to think is paramount in your office culture, I would have thought that separate soundproofed offices might work better for the code cutters?

Barbara Tien

on 12 Dec 12

@Jason, You know it’s a funny thing, but “it’s so quiet” is often the first thing visitors say when entering a well-run Montessori classroom. When all of the little tots are doing what Montessorians call “work” they’re quiet and, well, engaged and absorbed. (http://youtu.be/-kjr9FmMXv8) To make that happen all sorts of magic is necessary from really interesting work to the elimination of barriers. Why should work for engineers be any different?

Erich L. Timkar

on 12 Dec 12

I find that general low-level din and “library rules” are not incompatible. It’s one reason I work in coffee shops so much. I think it’s also one reason you find so many folks in this college town studying there too. Most people, in the mid-west plains at least, wouldn’t interrupt you, because they don’t know you.

Of course you do have the occasional mis-fit mom or dad wanders in who feels it’s the job of the fellow coffee shop patrons to parent their child, but they are exception.

Mason212

on 12 Dec 12

@ Erich
good points, but a coffee shop of strangers is different than an office where you are more likely to pay attention to what others are saying/doing,

oh and you don’t like kids I guess, too bad, funny how people in a public space expect everyone else to abide by their own personal rules of conduct, a stray child in a coffee shop momentarily, how awful

Anonymous Coward

on 12 Dec 12

@ Devan

their space is extremely well designed and forward thinking, it has open space layout but also rooms for talking/telephone/meeting and great building materials, in the past they posted photos before and after and even a video, search for it

as to their support people, I think most of it is done online if I am not mistaken so perhaps telephone work is not the norm plus their support staff are not all in the office in chicago, they have remote people all over – check their website about staff to see

CC

on 12 Dec 12

@Noah Parsons

The bulk of our support is done via email so phone calls are rare. When we do need to jump on the phone, there’s plenty of team rooms or even phone booths that we use to make calls.

Angry Reader

on 13 Dec 12

How about patrons of the libraries follow library rules?

I’m about to smack, upside the head, the next person that takes a phone call or otherwise conducts a long and loud conversation in my vicinity.

gmoxoxck

on 13 Dec 12

1

Erich L. Timkar

on 13 Dec 12

@Mason212

a stray child in a coffee shop momentarily, how awful

I know, right?

Stephanie Burke

on 13 Dec 12

Jason – our office is like this, and I love it! Our culture fits with our business focus – while we are a tech company, we publish peer reviewed medical information for patients with chronic pain – so the type of people we attract are not the same type who would, for instance, want to work at a celebrity-gossip company or a super-creative ad agency.

We have had one or two employees leave over the years, however, and in doing so mention how “boring” we are, and that they’d like to play ping pong while at work and have beers together in the evening. This feedback was helpful – not in getting us to change our culture but in terms of being more upfront about it in our hiring process. Now our job postings say “Focused, casual, quiet – that’s us.”

Not for everybody to be sure, but it works for us!

Great post – validates our quietness too.

Anonymous Coward

on 13 Dec 12

some of modern history’s most legendary writers, here comes some Glasses Prescription
priceless and pricelessly uncompromising wisdom from a very different kind of cultural legend:

Robert A.

on 14 Dec 12

Interesting how many comments this topic produced. I’ve worked in both types of environments and currently manage a group of people who prefer silence (and darkness). While I prefer a more boisterous atmosphere I certainly wouldn’t try to force it on a group as long as the group is effective.

I think it’s important to know whether the “silence” is a respectful, professional, silence or a simmering, loathing, silence. Not talking is fine. Won’t talk is unacceptable.

And +1 to being grown-ups. Especially when you need to ask people to take their impromptu meeting elsewhere. Please do it calmly and directly. No huffing, sighing or slamming of books and equipment. Thank you.

belial88

on 14 Dec 12

well, if I were to implement this in a couple of places I’ve worked, I’d need the help of a remorselessly medieval tongue-cutter

Quimp

on 15 Dec 12

I actually read this post in a low voice (in my head)!

For me talking aloud is not a problem when interactions are necessary. But when a co-worker is on the phone, it lights me up when people speak loudly.

!S!WCRTESTINPUT000000!E!

on 17 Dec 12

WCRTESTTEXTAREA000002

!S!WCRTESTINPUT000000!E!

on 17 Dec 12

WCRTESTTEXTAREA000002’ and ‘7’=’7

!S!WCRTESTINPUT000000!E!

on 17 Dec 12

WCRTESTTEXTAREA000002’ and ‘7’=’2

This discussion is closed.

About Jason Fried

Jason co-founded Basecamp back in 1999. He also co-authored REWORK, the New York Times bestselling book on running a "right-sized" business. Co-founded, co-authored... Can he do anything on his own?